It has been known to provide an arrangement wherein the lowermost card of a stack of cards is pulled off by means of a conveyor belt, against which the lowermost card is pressed by the weight of the stack of cards. This measure has the disadvantage that the whole-area of contact is subject to frictional forces, namely the contact area along the card to be pulled off and the next card. If the cards are printed or are provided with other colored layers, there is a risk of a rubbing off of the color coating and therefore a risk of a smudging of the print. This problem occurs especially during the handling of plastic cards, which are designed as data storage media.
A device for removing the lowermost plate from a stack of plates guided in the shaft is known from DE-A-34 42 123.
The front edge of the lowermost plate lies on a flat support surface in the circumference of a first push-off member. The rear edge of the lowermost plate rests on a rotatably mounted roller, in the area of which two additional push-off members are provided, one of which can be moved to and from as a pusher in the plane of the lowermost plate and the other is designed as a rocker.
To remove the lowermost plate, this plate is first displaced by a small mount to the rear by the first push-off member, while the pusher evades this movement, and the rocker is located in a rearwardly directed starting position. During a further rotary movement of the first push-off member, the front edge of the plate comes free from this push-off member, and the pusher moves the rear edge of the plate into its original position. The rear edge of the plate now rolls on the stationary roller, and the plate assumes an oblique position. The front edge of the plate is supported in this oblique position on an oblique sliding surface, while only the second push-off member, designed as a rocker, acts on the rear edge of the plate and pushes off the plate along the sliding surface in the direction of a conveyor located under it. Consequently, two rear push-off members, which require a separate drive each and whose movements must be coordinated with one another, are necessary for pushing off the lowermost plate in this prior-art device.